The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-03-24
RAILROADS IN MEXICO.
What They Have Dons to Arouse an Ex.
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tremeIy Conservative People.
The American railroads in Mexico have
already done much to arouse the most
stubbornly conservative people on the
face of the globe from their lethargy.
and in a manner that no other instru-
mentality probably could have effected
When the locomotive first appeared, it is
eaid that the people of whole villages
fed affrighted from their habitations, or
organized professions with religious en-
blems and holy water, to exercise aud
repel the monster. During the first year
of the experience of the Mexican Central,
armed guards also were considered an
essential accompaniment of every train,
as had been the case on the Vera Cruz
railroad since its opening in 1878. But
all this is now a matter of the past, and
SO impressed is the government with the
Importance of keeping its railroad sys-
tenn safe and intact that the Mexican
congress recently decreed instant execu-
ton, without any formal trial, to any
one caught in the act of wrecking or
robbing train.
That any improved methods of inter-
communication between different peo-
pie or countries-common roads, vessels,
railroads, or vehicles, or the ike-in-
crease the production and exchange of
commodities, is accepted as an economic
axiom. But there could be no more
striking and practical illustration of this
law than a little recent experience on
the line of the Mexican National rail-
road. The corn crop, which is the main
reliance of the people living along the
present southern extension of this road for
food, had for several years prior to 1885,
failed by reason of drought; and, under
ordinary circumstances, great suffering
through starvation would inevitably
have ensued. The natives, however, soon
learned that with the railroad had come
ready market, at from Q 1-2 to cents
per pound for the fiber known as "ixtle;"
the product of arspecies of agave, which
grows in great abundance in the noun
famous region of that section of coun-
try, and which has recently come into
extensive use in Europe and the United
States for the manufacture Of brushes,
ladies' corsets, mats cordage, etc. And
SO well have they improved their knowl-
edge and opportunities that the quantity
of ixtle transported by the Mexican Ma
tional railroad has risen from 224, 7S9
pounds in 1882 to 700, 341 in 1888, to 81
49S, 407 in 1884, and 3, ,531, 105 in the first
seven months of 1885; while with the
money proceeds the producers have been
able to buy more corn from Texas than
they would have obtained had their
crops been successful, and have had in
addition, and probably for the first time
in their lives, some surplus cash to ex-
pend for other purposes.
What sort of things these poor Mexi-
cans would buy if they could was in
dicated to the writer by seeing in the
hut of laborer, ON the line of the Mexi-
can Central railroad-a place destitute of
almost every comfort, or article of furni-
| ture OF convenience bright, new,
small kerosene lamp, than which moth
| ing that fell under his observation in
| Mexico was more remarkable and inter-
esting. Remarkable and interesting be-
cause neither this man, nor his father,
possibly, since the world to them began
had ever before known anything better
| eieei q olreAhiS " diiO tt AllCtllOu iOl
illumination at night; and had never had
either the knowledge, the desire, or the
means of obtaining anything superior.
But at last. through contract with and
employment on the American railroad,
the desire, the opportunity, the means to
purchase, and the knowledge of the
simple mechanism of the lamp, had
come to this humble, isolated Mexican
! peasant; and out of the germ of progress
thus spontaneously, as it were, developed
by the wayside, may come influences
more potent for civilization and the ele-
walton of humanity in Mexico than all
that church and state have been able to
effect within the last three centuries
David A. Wells in Popular Science
Monthly,